B2B Marketing on YouTube
Digital marketing strategy in the 21st century requires extensive video marketing. Video production and editing are no longer expensive and it became readily available. With a smartphone, tripod and editing software, even a small bakery from around the corner can create an amazing video.
YouTube is the largest hub for videos in the world. Individuals, businesses and organizations use it alike to promote their stories and share ideas. YouTube issued a press release in 2018 claiming there are over 1.9 billion users worldwide.
People spend a third of their time online watching videos.
As you know YouTube belongs to Google’s Display Network, which reaches over 90% of Internet users worldwide through 2 million sites and apps.
YouTube as a channel is available in 70+ countries. Some sources say it can be accessed on up to 80 different languages. People spend a third of their time online watching videos.
The numbers never lie and they have inspired marketers to re-evaluate their go to market strategies. Video is a crucial part of today’s online business. Many companies have created a separate strategy for YouTube.
According to the State of Inbound report from 2018 almost half of the marketers in the digital landscape plan to do this in the next 12 months.
YouTube for B2B
YouTube is a versatile channel usable for both B2C and B2B purposes. The strategy will differ based on who’s your target audience. New insights point out that the fastest-growing demographic groups are Baby Boomers and Generation X. This may come as a surprise to the people who believe only younger generations use the channel.
Video can often tell a story a lot quicker than a written post. Business owners, managers, and company representatives are often being over-burdened with their day-to-day tasks. It will be more convenient to view a 60 seconds video than to read an entire page about the same topic.
Forbes highlighted way back in 2010 how 75% of Fortune 500 executives are viewing videos to make informed decisions.
As the 2nd highest ranked search engine YouTube has the power to generate views but this not the whole picture. YouTube can also allow you to engage with your target audience, answer questions about your business, and get them familiar with your brand. This all ultimately leads to a conversion. The International Data Group released a study that found how 46% of B2B technology buyers purchase a product or service after viewing video content.
Businesses know of this fact. Competition is fierce. An Aberdeen Group 2015 study found out that businesses that use a video marketing strategy can grow their revenue 49% faster year-over-year than businesses that don’t use video, although the competition is growing companies are not slowing down with their branded content on YouTube.
Videos are important but so is the channel. YouTube has some distinctive advantages for your B2B and overall marketing strategy.
It allows you to have access to comprehensive reporting and analytic, people are familiar with the YouTube video player and last but not least, it’s important for SEO.
As an SEO specialist agency, we recommend taking your brand to YouTube.
Another feature, highly important, is the ability to precisely target customer segments. Since YouTube is part of Google, you can set up exact keyword targeting for Google searches and Google will transfer the insights to YouTube.
The bottom line is clear – YouTube can increase your brand awareness and increase B2B sales.
Right then, how to start?
Set Up a Branded YouTube Channel
We won’t go into much detail regarding this step as it’s a simple procedure. Have a Google account. Go to YouTube and don’t create a channel but rather go to the “Use a business or other name” link and create a Brand Account.
You need to customize your channel. This means adding a channel icon, channel art, channel description, a company email, and links to your company website and other social platforms.
It’s a good thing to remember that you can have two versions of your channel. One for subscribed and the other for unsubscribed visitors.
A business YouTube account means that the account owner and manager might not be the same individuals. When granting access to Google account there are three levels to choose: Owner, Manager and Community Manager.
Follow the YouTube brand guidelines.
Create Engaging Videos
As part of your content marketing strategy, videos might take different forms and have different goals. The most common are product demonstrations, customer testimonials, explainer and tutorial videos, even videos, case studies, thought leader interviews, etc. All these formats can produce amazing effects in a B2B environment.
The videos should entertain to draw attention and still be able to convey your message. Even if you’re not in charge of the production (if you delegate the task to a professional studio) you should monitor the process. Create a script that will outline the message and structure of the future video.
Optimize Videos for SEO
What is a quality video good for if nobody sees it?
YouTube is the second largest search engine. That means it is crucial to update the metadata for a better SEO score.
YouTube uses an indexing method to list the videos. The metadata must contain keywords and have the right parameters so that people can easily find what they are looking for. This ensures that when people are searching for similar videos, yours might pop up.
Title – You have 60 characters spaces available to write a clear and compelling title. Like with on-site SEO the title can pull some heavyweight on your ranking. Optimize the title for keywords by which the users are searching for the video.
Description – You have around 100 characters to capture the reader’s attention before the text is cut off. To read beyond that, viewers will need to click “Show more”. The description below the video and those 100 characters, roughly translate to 2 to 3 lines of text. Again, like with on-page SEO, use the right amount of keywords to achieve a better ranking. You can insert links that lead to your social channels, video credits, and video-specific time stamps.
Choose video Category and insert video Tags. Tags are the keywords and they are useful as your video might associate with similar videos, widening your reach. Put the most important tags at the beginning as YouTube puts more weight on them.
Thumbnail can drastically affect the number of clicks and views your video receives. YouTube reports that 90% of the best performing videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails. They are the main images viewers will see when scrolling through a list of video results
It’s also important to add subtitles and closed captions and use cards and end screens.
Thanks to the fact that YouTube is part of Google’s Display Network you can get precise with keyword targeting. You can decide whether to use exact or broad match, exclude keywords, etc.
YouTube optimization for SEO can be a simple task for a few videos or a project on its own. If you need help with it ElectricBot New Jersey can help you as we are a digital marketing company with a lot of experience in this field.
Promote your Video
Once the video is in place and is optimized, you need to connect it with your other channels. A large subscriber list is what we all wish for but it doesn’t happen overnight. You need to build up to it, to essentially market your video. There are a few ways to achieve this.
Social Media – It is easy to share your video on social media platforms, YouTube even provides a shortened link to make things easier. Smart advertising means putting the video where it’s relevant and where people might need it. Simple sharing doesn’t work for all videos. Start with the reason why you made the video. An easy example is a tutorial that is created as a response to people asking questions. You can submit the video link as an answer to those questions.
Blog Posts and Website – Add a YouTube icon to your website or blog post. This will not only promote the video but also drive traffic to your website.
Email – If you have a list of email subscribers be sure to tell them about your new video.
Engage With Viewers – The YouTube comment section is a place for opportunities, but answering questions and asking for feedback is a good way to engage with your viewers.
Video Ads Campaigns
To use YouTube to its full extent, you should consider Google Ads campaigns for YouTube. Driving organic traffic to your videos is sometimes not enough and the true value of these Ads comes from targeting options. In a B2B landscape, it is important to be as precise as you can with your ads.
As a little introduction, YouTube uses a cost per view (CPV) model with the already well-known auction and bidding process. There are several types of video ads. YouTube uses six formats – display ads, overlay ads, skippable video ads, non-skippable video ads, bumper ads, and sponsored cards.
More about each on Google’s page:https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2467968?hl=en
Interesting are TrueView ads, which come in two formats – Discovery Ads and In-Stream Ads.
TrueView ads are those where a viewer can choose which video ads to watch and when. Discovery ads appear in places where viewers discover content, one of the most interesting places is certainly the YouTube homepage.
We mentioned YouTube (Google) offers great targeting capabilities.
You can choose different demographic characteristics. You can choose between demographic groups and detailed demographics. Location is another valuable option, especially if you’re doing business regionally.
You can target customers by interests they share. You can choose from different available audience categories. Some of them are affinity audiences, custom affinity audiences, and a custom intent audience. More on Google’s page:https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2454017?hl=en-GB
For example, let’s take the custom intent audience option. You can reach out to viewers who are making a buying decision, based on their keyword search.
You can also use video remarketing, placements, topics, keywords and devices.
Analyze the Results – YouTube Analytic
The key thing in any business, or any situation in life, is to analyze the results of your actions.
YouTube Analytic can help with this task. You can see how your strategy is performing against a goal you set. Each video should have a separate goal. Some key metrics you should keep an eye on are the number of people who have watched the video, the average time spent per video and the level of engagement.
Watch time and audience retention are good indicators about the success of your video. Watch time is one of YouTube’s ranking factors and the retention rate shows the average percentage of a video your audience watches per view. Naturally, a higher percentage rate signals a better chance for engagement. You should place cards and end screens in videos with a higher average percentage.
Other relevant indicators are the traffic sources report and a demographics report.
Conclusion
It’s important to remember two things. First, your videos should be short. This is not a rule, but it’s a fact that people don’t have a lot of time, especially in a B2B environment.
Second, you need to be consistent. One video will not do the trick. You should treat your channel like a blog post. You need to keep providing new content to establish your brand.
Overall, the video is a powerful medium. It can not only convey a complex message but also add a human touch to your brand. You can showcase real employees, customers, or partners. Real people with real stories.
You can add explanation videos, tutorials, how-to-videos. All equally important in the digital age. If you’re selling a physical product, you can present it, show how it works.
A demonstration is the most effective way to sell – and you can show a lot through a single 60 seconds video.
Last, but not least, YouTube is a powerful platform that can allow your videos to be seen through organic search or paid advertising.
If you’re not already knee-deep in the process of creating your next video, ElectricBot has only one thing to say to you: “What are you waiting for?”
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